It’s 7am on a Wednesday morning at the beginning of November and I’m asleep in bed, in a cosy little hotel in Yangshuo in China. I’m woken by the sound … of fireworks! Looking out of the window, I watch a very impressive display of fireworks that lasts for at least 10 minutes and is really impressive, against a cloudy sky.

In the UK we usually only let of fireworks around Bonfire Night on 5 November and only at night, when it’s dark. But having just spent three weeks in China, I’ve learnt a thing or two about making yourself heard. In this blog I thought I’d share some ideas on how to make your marketing go with a bang!

How to be heard

China is a big place and it is full of people – 1.2 billion, to be precise! This means that when you’re at a national tourist site, such as the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, if you’re a tour guide, you need to be heard by your group of tourists. The Chinese have developed a wonderful technique for being heard about the noise – shouting! And they’ve developed another clever technique for being heard above the shouting – shouting into a loud speaker! Nearly everywhere we went we were met with crowds of tourists being shouted at by their tour guides, tour guides shouting at each other and officials shouting at the tour guides and all the tourists. (If you’re looking for a peaceful place to go on holiday, don’t go to China!)

Now I’m not saying that the best way for you to get your business message across is to turn up at a networking meeting and just shout … but you do need to get used to ‘shouting’ about what you do and how good you are at doing it. Us Brits are too good at hiding our talents or shrugging it off when someone tells us that we’re actually rather good at what we do. If you want to grow your business, you either need to get used to telling prospects that you’re the talented person who can help them; or you need to find someone else who can blow your trumpet for you.

Find your fireworks

If you’re a Coach, Consultant or Trainer, then you’re in a very competitive marketplace. There are thousands of other people out there, doing exactly what you do. You might have a slightly different way of coaching your clients, or of delivering your training, but essentially there aren’t many differences. (The same is true for us Marketing Consultants, by the way!)

So you need a way to stand out from the crowd and to be noticed. You need to make your marketing go with a bang and a whizz and with some sparkle. I’m not suggesting that you set off fireworks at the next event you attend (although taking some sparklers along is very tempting …!) but you do need to think about the impression you make. Do you get lost in the crowd at networking meetings? Does your website look the same as everyone else’s? Does your newsletter just repeat the topic that everyone else is writing about this month?

Or do you put up signs that really make you stand out?

Consistency is key

Pandas are quite clever really. They know that in order to survive they need to eat a lot (and I mean a LOT!) of bamboo. This means that they spend a large proportion of their eating … and then they sleep it off. What do they do the next day? Well, they get up, eat a lot and then sleep a lot. And they do the same the next day and the next and the next …

Pandas would be good at marketing if they weren’t so busy eating and sleeping. Why? Because they understand the importance of consistency. They stick to their routine and know that ad hoc marketing, or eating, won’t work – you have to keep doing the same thing every day/week/month. They also know that in order to survive, they need to do more of what works (eating and sleeping) and less of what doesn’t (taking exercise, playing Mahjong, photographing tourists …)

If you’re starting to think about the marketing that you need to do next year, to make 2017 go with a bang, think about these Chinese lessons that I learnt. Work out how best to heard above the din of your competitors; put some fizz, bang and sparkle into your marketing; and do it consistently (in between sleeping!) And if you’re not sure exactly how to do that, call me on 01635 578 500 for a chat about your marketing!